This Haunted House Will Pay $20,000 to Anyone Who Can Make It All the Way Through

If you love haunted houses, there’s one in Tennessee that will pay you $20,000 if you can finish it. But there’s a catch, of course: Nobody has ever made it all the way through this haunted house experience before, because it’s just that scary. (To be clear, they call it quits and go home — this haunted house is not claiming any souls!)

Called McKamey Manor, it was featured on the Netflix show Haunters: The Art of the Scare. Its owner, Russ McKamey, charges only a bag of dog food as an entrance fee (he has five dogs), but everyone who visits must also sign a 40-page waiver, sit through a two-hour-long orientation video, and pass a background check and a physical exam to make sure they’re in good enough health to withstand the experience, according to WFLA, a Tampa Bay NBC affiliate.

So what makes McKamey Manor so terrifying? McKamey says he uses hypnosis on his guests to enhance the fear factor of the house setup itself.

“When I use the hypnosis I can put you in a [kiddie] pool with a couple inches of water and tell you there’s a great white shark in there, and you’re gonna think there’s a shark in there,” he told WFLA.

Because he manipulates guests’ perceptions, he films every haunted house tour — not just as a creepy souvenir, but also in order to have a record for police. “When you have that kind of power over people, and have them do and see things that you want them to see, then they can leave here thinking it really happened,” he said. “They’ll go to the authorities and say, ‘oh, whatever,’ and I have to come back and show the footage and say, ‘it didn’t go that way at all.’ It’s saved me a thousand times.”

McKamey tailors the experience to each individual’s fears; a particularly common one is water, thus the kiddie pool and (imaginary) sharks.

This all sounds a little too intense for us, but if you’re up to the challenge, you can inquire about a visit to McKamey Manor here. Before you do, you might want to check out its YouTube channel, which shows highlights from past tours. For more about McKamey Manor and Russ McKamey himself, check out the full story on WFLA.